Days ago, ink was spilled here about Jeff Bezos' feeble charitable donations, in relation to both the size of his fortune and the generous donations made by his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott (who I sorta have a crush on, although that may be because she is a billionaire). It appears that the ripple here created a cyber-tsunami in Seattle that compelled Bezos to action.
Let's set the table first. Bezos deserves some plaudits for charitable giving. He created the Bezos Earth Fund with a $10 billion pledge in February 2020. He vowed that the organization would work to combat climate change. However, the organization did very little philanthropic work early on. After nine months in existence, the group made its first donation last November - $791 million in grants to 16 different organizations (The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, etc). You know, pandas and shit.
This was a great start. But it is hard for the odds to get good press to be ever in his favor, even after this news. You see, Bezos has a net worth of $162 billion from his shares of Amazon alone. His total net worth is estimated at ~$200 billion. This is a preposterous amount of money. And yes - $10 billion is big - but it's about 5% of his worth. So donating 7.9% of that 5%, well, is not exactly denting his the checking account a his local credit union. (Editor's note: 7.9% of 5% is 0.4%)
So fast forward to early March. A bunch of devilishly clever and sly folks note on this very corner of the interwebs noted that Scott has been a passionate and committed philanthropist. Days later, news comes out that Bezos, the one super-duper rich guy who has not yet signed onto the Giving Pledge, vowed to spend the full $10 billion by 2030, implying a cool $1 billion/year spending cadence. Link is here if you want to read the story.
Note to Jeff - if you want to keep trying to buy good press with billions in charitable donations, go for it!!! We'll cyber-fellate you all day long if you use your knowledge of technology and logistics to battle climate change and wealth inequality. Go give Bill & Melinda Gates a run for their money.
When reached for comment, Bezos stated that Bezos Earth Fund was inspired by George Costanza's The Human Fund.
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so here’s a fun little story. doing some physical therapy to rehab my knee from a soccer injury. one of the techs at the office i go to is a very tall young woman. turns out she played hoops at william & mary. and how - she’s the caa’s all-time leader in blocked shots, and led the nation as a senior. pretty cool.
NYT Times says gas prices will hit $4/gallon in the coming months. I'd like to check in with our GTB crude correspondent TR for confirmation.
Rob - did you try and score on her?
Speaking of scoring, I had a porch sit last night with an old buddy. He passed through on his way back to Charleston, SC from Wheeling, WV, where he'd been dispatched to work for a few weeks.
Last Sunday he started drinking at brunch and kept it up all day. On the elevator back at his hotel, he saw an attractive woman and complimented her glasses. She replied "I just got divorced, and we're down at the pool drinking." Being a bit stupor-fied, the only response he could muster was "I'm Nathan". That was apparently sufficient. She did not block his shot.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Nathan-s-Skinless-Beef-Hot-Dogs-12-oz/35791412
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcw4mASz0uQ
I'll try not to bore you, Whit. A barrel of oil is ~$63 now (keeping the math simple). A barrel contains 42 gallons. The cost to "refine" oil to make it gasoline/diesel/jet fuel is ~$0.75/gallon. So the break-even price of gas should be $2.25. However, the intermediaries in the process from refinery to retail gas station each like to make money, so you have to bake in slim profit margins on the way down. But we're not done. The last layer is taxes. And boy, do states like to pile on gas taxes. NJ just raised its own AGAIN b/c there was a shortfall of toll revenue in 2020. Cali also loves to tax the shit out of gas. Taxes differ by state, and refineries are not located everywhere, so you get different retail prices.
Final issue here relates to the freeze-off in TX/OK a few weeks ago. Gasoline demand is seasonal. Refineries run in March and store refined products for summer driving season. The fact that many refineries were off-line could impact inventories of refined products and create distorted market conditions, exacerbating increasing gasoline prices.
To directly address the question, if we spike to $75 oil, you could see gas prices hit $4. I want to say that's too high, but we're almost back at $3/gallon in my town. Biden and the libs want to shut down oil drilling, and lefties want to tell pension funds not to own shares in oil and gas companies, but we are very much an economy that is utterly reliant on fuel. We consume ~18 million barrels a day in normal times. We will be back at peak oil demand by y/e 2021. It was a fantastic setup to buy exposure to oil and oil stocks. Exxon is up 50% YTD!
(Climbs up on soapbox, waits for Rob to hurl a tomato at head) The solution, IMO, is a coherent, measured transition. Renewables can't compete on cost with US natural gas yet, which should be a bridge fuel. Ask every restaurant owner and chef how they feel about new buildings in NYC not being allowed to have gas-fired equipment. And I don't know what you EV lovers know about sourcing materials for batteries, but it is a dirty, dirty business. And one that is mostly reliant on the aforementioned natural gas for charging purposes. (Climbs down from soapbox, dodges tomato).
eh, i'm not mad. this is an issue that has to be solved over decades, not months. there are externalities that can't be avoided during that transition.
G’town over Nova. Hmmm.
Nova lost their PG and captain for the season last week. Then they lost another starting guard to a “severe” (Jay Wright’s word) ankle injury the following game. In short, Villanova is fucked. This loss isn’t that big a surprise even though the Hoyas had to make a huge comeback to get the win.
I’d advise betting against Nova on the money line next week.
It's been 25 years since Rob, Daniel, and I did this:
https://gheorghe77.blogspot.com/2013/03/when-we-were-heroes.html
And by Daniel, I typed and was autocorrected from Danimal
slow news day
not in charlottesville or lawrence
UVA is setting up their improbable title defense with a classic misdirection.
Also - how do you like this activity for an 83 year old?
So, this A-Rod news has to hurt his chances of getting into the Rock and Roll HOF, right?
Chanel Road Whit. Chanel Road. Damn we are old AF. That was quite the dungeon. Not many better places to lay on a couch after a Fri and Sat bender. Dark. Cold. The couch space plentiful.
I am a Cade Cunningham fan and would be quite pleased if he played for the Orlando Magic next season.
Also: if you’re in the market for a new hoodie or T-shirt, check out of Roots of Fight. I’m currently wearing a recently purchased and incredibly comfortable Roberto Clemente hoodie from them.
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